Highlights from the week’s juvenile justice and justice related articles, videos and more that are worth your time.

ACLU Calls for Ban on Solitary Confinement in Juvenile Facilities

The ACLU has released a new report, “Alone and Afraid: Children Held in Solitary Confinement and Isolation in Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facilities,” and are hoping to change the rampant institutional abuse of solitary confinement as a method of punishing and/or protecting juveniles. We are in complete agreement with their position; it is time to abolish this inhumane practice.

Cheslea Manning released a powerful statement from prison this week, declaring what she is thankful for on her fourth Thanksgiving while incarcerated. Looking at 35 more years in confinement, she gave thanks for knowing the violent truth behind the Thanksgiving myth, American’s who are seeking the truth even in the face of danger, and the great whistleblowers and activists who paved the way for Mannings deeds through their actions.

At Clark County Jail Work Center in Washington, 30 inmates spent 4 days preparing the Thanksgiving meal for 800 people. A few states away in Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio bragged about the Thanksgiving meal he has arranged for inmates, which featured a soy turkey creation and cost 56 cents per person. Whereas Arpaio tweeted hopes that the inmates will be thankful, considering they are only fed twice a day, the women cooking the meal were given a chance to combine their talents to work towards a common goal and create something that can be truly enjoyed by the community they currently find themselves in. This makes us wonder…who will benefit more from their thanksgiving meal in the long run?

This article brings to light an all-too-important fact of education reform: we are attempting to repair a system that is outdated and ineffective at its core. In order to fix these problems, we have to do more than fix…we have to recreate. Though the task is daunting, it is truly moving to ponder the possibilities of how the next generation will come to experience, process, and recreate the world we live in.